by Jerome Hughes
PATIENTS are at risk and staff face being overwhelmed by a recruitment freeze affecting clerical and administration workers at Letterkenny University Hospital.
That was the key message from more than 100 LUH staff who staged a protest outside the hospital earlier this week during their lunch break.
Ann-Marie Boyle, who works at the hospital’s new Frailty Unit, spoke to Donegal News as she took part in the demonstration.
“Recruitment is being frozen which means the services are being frozen. This puts a lot of stress on patients and staff. We are understaffed as it is. Now, if someone retires, is on long-term sick leave or maternity leave – those posts aren’t being filled.
“When someone retires, other staff are expected to pick up that work. Once again, Donegal is the forgotten county.”
The Frailty Unit assesses elderly patients in the emergency department to determine if they are safe to return home.
The protest, part of a national campaign, was organised by Fórsa, Ireland’s largest union for public service workers with 80,000 members around the country.
“This is not a strike. This is our members coming out on their lunch break to have their voices heard,” insisted Fórsa’s Michelle Connaughton,
Ms. Connaughton represents the union in Donegal, Sligo and Leitrim.
“We had about 150 of our members out on a lunchtime protest in relation to the HSE’s unilateral moratorium on recruitment, relating to all our administration and managerial grades.
“Over the last couple of weeks that moratorium on recruitment has been extended out to all grades, apart from a very small number of doctor and nursing posts.
“We’re going to be hugely affected throughout the winter with all these vacancies not being filled and existing staff trying to keep the services going. Here at Letterkenny hospital, in our administration grades, we’ve got more than twenty vacancies. We’ve got a critical situation at the switchboard in the hospital where we have vacancies that we’re not able to fill,” claimed Ms. Connaughton.
The healthcare workers were given plenty of support by passing motorists, many of whom sounded their horns. Ms. Connaughton expressed appreciation.
“There is great support from the public and we’re delighted with that. They’re seeing the difficulties they’re having in getting the services they need, not only in the hospital but out in their community. For example, home help services to keep people in their homes. All of this is impacted by the recruitment moratorium.
“Every phone call that comes into the hospital; checking your appointment, checking the results of a scan or an x-ray, or even checking up on your loved ones on the wards, that lack of adequate staffing is going to have a huge effect on the community.”
Mary T. Sweeney, Chairperson of the Letterkenny Hospital Campaign Group, also attended the protest.
“Once again it’s the patients who are going to be affected by this. We’re depending on the clerical and secretarial staff to get the referral letters out and deal with referral letters coming in. These could be for MRI scans or x-rays that turn out to be terminal. These correspondence have to be opened.”
A statement from the Health Service Executive regarding the nationwide recruitment moratorium said: “The Government funded the HSE to recruit over 6,000 new posts in 2023 to support the development of services. That target was reached before the end of the year, hence the temporary pause. During 2023 the HSE also filled 13,000 replacement posts.”
However, Fórsa has not ruled out escalating the dispute if a satisfactory resolution is not agreed with the HSE, according to Ms. Connaughton.
“The industrial action started on the 9th of October. Our strike committee will soon make a decision regarding what comes next but we don’t want to be here. It’s up to the HSE.”
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